Merlin

Merlin was this little red box that you held in your hand - the precursor to Game Boy. 9 buttons that lit up and sound effects that were SOOOO awesome! You could play up to 9 games - Tic Tac Toe, a Simon-esque music game, some sort of change the graphic game, and some others I can't remember right now.

I saved my allowance for 4 months!!! It cost $50 in 1980 at Service Merchandise and I was so excited!! I played that thing everyday, 6-8 hours a day. On the school bus, after school - I even played it during cartoons on Saturday...well, during the commercials at any rate.

I loved that thing...for a month. That's how long it took me to master all 9 games. It sat in the closet for a couple of years and then I gave it away. But for that one month...ah!

Anyone get one of these for Christmas in the 70's, I did, It was a Red plastic afair, with a series of Red lights. It did have a few different games that could be played on it. The last time I saw my Merlin was years ago, In fact, I am sure it is still in the loft somewhere, Time for a toy hunt, me'thinks.

Merlin is an electronic game, manufactured by Parker Brothers, which plays six different games - Tic Tac Toe, Music Machine, Echo, Blackjack 13, Magic Square and Mindbender. We are only concerned with Magic Square here as it is a Lights Out type game. Magic Square is played on a 3 by 3 grid of buttons which can take one of two states, off or flashing. When the player presses one of these buttons, the state of that button and of certain of its neighbours is toggled. The aim of the game is to get all the buttons flashing except the central one.